CASTRO: Tigers good enough to wait out minor issues

Detroit Tigers' Prince Fielder (28) celebrates with Miguel Cabrera (24) after hitting a three-run home run against the New York Yankees in the fifth inning of a baseball game in Detroit, Friday April 5, 2013. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

After a fear-inducing series against the Twins in Minnesota, the Tigers returned more to their expected form Friday with an 8-3 win over the Yankees. Hopefully, that'll be enough to dull the roar from the panic that the first series of the year brought.

Can everyone just take a breath for a second and relax for a minute. It's early April. The 2013 baseball season is just days old and Tiger fans -- and organizational brass for that matter -- were acting as if this team is destined for the AL Central cellar if something didn't happen. Until, of course Friday came ... and it did.

Advertisement

How quickly we forget that this team was three games below .500 (39-42) and 4 1/2 games out of first place on July 3 of last year, only to finish 49-32 down the stretch to win a second straight division title.

Not to mention, this year's edition of the Tigers is notably improved from a year ago.

Still, a Phil Coke blown save and an eighth-inning bullpen implosion later, Jose Valverde is back in the organization and once again the sky was falling over 2100 Woodward Ave. just ahead of first pitch of Friday's home opener.

Um, why?

Nothing against the Valverde signing per se, there's an obvious hole at the back end of the bullpen that requires filling. Though the timing of the move, bringing back an exiled closer that was banished after imploding in the postseason six months ago, reeks of desperation. Even though the sample size is far too small to warrant such reaction, it's hard to imagine the Tigers relying on the likes of Valverde in a high-stakes, pressure situation.

Is there a bona fide question about this team's closer. Absolutely. Does it need to be addressed immediately -- hardly. There's time for Jim Leyland and Dave Dombrowski to tinker and figure out exactly what they have.

Short answer: give the players a chance to figure it out.

Drew Smyly bounced back from a dreadful first series of the year and was dominant out of the pen Friday. He threw four innings of perfect relief out of the pen, complete with five strikeouts. He's not the answer at closer, but maybe the bullpen isn't as awful as it appeared in the first 1.8 percent -- or three games -- of the season.

Bullpen issues aside, there are minor issues that followed the Tigers home from Minnesota, some of which still need ironing out.

It may have taken 31 2/3 innings for the Tigers to hit their first home run of the season, a two-out, three-run blast from Prince Fielder, but it all but erased the memory of the three-extra base hits -- all doubles -- in the series against the Twins.

Of course, the Alex Avila bomb the following inning didn't hurt. Nor did Fielder's no-doubter in the seventh. They can hit the ball -- there's nothing to worry about there.

Those were just the fourth and fifth extra-base hits of the year.

Timely hitting on the other hand, still remains a minor blemish on the Tigers' season to date. They've stranded 28 runners and are hitting just .212 (7-33) with runners in scoring position. To properly gauge that, the Tigers hit .285 with RISP a year ago. With the lineup shaping up to be better than it was, with the addition of Torii Hunter and Victor Martinez returning from a knee injury, there's no reason to think they won't find their level.

Enjoy the ride. It's a long, grueling season. There will be ups; there will be downs.

But come October, early-season panic will have long-since been replaced by playoff fever. Just give it time.